The parents had purchased an air compressor at Lowe's to refill a flat tire on our snowblower. It turned out we couldn't actually use the compressor - the only way one could plug it in was into a car's cigarette lighter, and it wouldn't run if it wasn't plugged in - and by the time we discovered this (it wasn't at all obvious from the box, and it wasn't opened for a couple of days) the receipt was long gone, so parents instead bought a manual bicycle pump, got rid of the useless compressor and resigned themselves to a winter of manually filling tires.

Then a few days later, Mom and I came home from a doctor appointment, Mom checked the mail and found a large package on the doorstep from Lowe's customer service. She opened it up, and inside was a brand new compressor, about twice the price of the one that didn't work, that we'd be able to use, and at first she couldn't figure out who might have sent it. Then all of a sudden she exclaimed (jokingly of course), "Oh, I'm going to strangle *J* if it was him!"

See, J is disabled. He has multiple sclerosis. He was receiving disability from the state, but he was also working at the time - he refuses to just sit back and take free money from the state, and I can't blame him - and all of a sudden, the state decided he was making 50 cents too much an hour. So they cut his benefits and insisted he pay back every last penny that he'd received. (They've since backed down on that, but his disability hasn't been reinstated yet.) Right now, he has almost no spare money at all - my sister is supporting them both until he can get his disability back. And he still spent a good chunk of what he does have to help us out, because he considers us family.

Honestly, I want to be more like J.

Logged

"So, what did you wish for?""I wished for... World domination, of course."